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Talking to Kids

Ten-year-old Little Willy and his beloved pet, Searchlight, enter a dog sled race in order to win enough money to save his grandfather’s farm. His biggest competition is a Native American named Stone Fox whose claim to fame is that he’s never lost a race. For a good portion of John Reynolds Gardiner’s book “Stone…

She’s right, you know. The above is one of my favorite quotes of all time, said by a woman I truly admire. I’ll admit it: I used “gossiping” to draw you in (hi!). We adults should not be modeling destructive, judgmental talk in any way. We can, however, discuss people and their actions to enrich a child’s vocabulary. Eleanor Roosevelt…

One of the biggest mistakes that we can make as educators and adults is to let kids go through school thinking that learning only happens at school. In fact, it should be made clear early on that school is where you get the tools, and the world is where the real learning happens. Unfortunately, with the…

If we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us find comfort in thinking that we have some control over our lives. Being predictable is often perceived as better than being unpredictable, and many people set up their lives so that routine prevails and surprises are minimized. When we meet somebody new, we often call upon…

Using public transportation to and from New York City each day has given me ample opportunity to observe a wide variety of human behavior. It has also allowed me to build up a surprising amount of angst towards particular behavior that seems to be repeated over and over. The following list encompasses some of the…

What do you think of when you hear the word “smart”? What does it mean to you? More importantly, what does it mean to be the opposite of smart? When I was young, I had a pretty easy time with school; things came quickly to me, I never really needed extra help or support, and…